From today the gamer community It’s going to be a tough blow to your pocket. The digital video game sales platform Steam dollarizes the prices of the games for Argentina.
Although the announcement was made at the end of October, it will take effect today. “Starting November 20, Steam will change the currency used for sales in Argentina to dollars,” the platform said in a statement explaining: “We are going to implement this through a new price region called ‘LATAM – USD’ that includes Argentina.” The other countries that include the LATAM-USD region are Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela.
This new system does not meanAs many feared, than the blockbusters move from the regionalized price to the standard price in US dollars $60 or $70. Video game publishers (the companies that are in charge of distributing them) will continue to choose the price of their games through the Steam guide tool but They will do it in dollars for the entire region.
So, The platform aims to stabilize the price of games for different countries in the region whose exchange rate situation is fluctuating. It will be up to publishers whether they want to accept Steam’s suggested price (which in many cases is probably lower than the US price) or standardize it to the global price. In the latter case, gamers would see an increase in the value of the most expensive games.
“The volatility of the exchange rate situation in Argentina in recent years has made it difficult for developers to have to choose appropriate prices for their games and keep them updated,” Steam explained in its statement where it detailed: “It has also been difficult for us to maintain payment methods operating in these territories due to continuous exchange fluctuations, costs, taxes and logistics problems. “Dollarizing prices will help provide greater stability and consistency for players and our partners.”as well as continuing to offer a variety of payment methods,” he concluded.
How the dollarization of video games will be applied on Steam
A blockbuster video game (or AAA, as it is known in the gaming world) It has a standard price of US$60 or US$70, depending on the game. When uploading it to the Steam platform, the publisher decides the price in each region or country and Steam provided a pricing guide that takes into account other socioeconomic factors in addition to the exchange between currencies.
He Argentine developer Pablo Marín He confirmed on his Twitter account that, under that guideline, today Steam suggests that for every 5 US dollars, publishers charge $400 plus taxes. Starting November 20Steam will suggest a conversion 5 US dollars to au$s3 for the region and for US$60 it will recommend a price of US$27. It will be up to the publishers whether they accept that suggested price or set their own, which could be the United States standard.
Gamers must multiply that price in dollars by the card dollar exchange rate which should only change due to variations in the official dollar.
Thus, the publishers should not vary the price of their games with each change in the Argentine economy, but this regional dollar should vary less over time. Thus, the price of games will be more stable, more tied to the variation of this dollar card and not about the entire situation of the country.
The problem behind the decision to dollarize video games on Steam
One of the recurring complaints from developers and publishers of video games with Steam was that users from all over the world they took advantage of the price from countries like Argentina to pay less for games. The platform hopes with this measure, discourage these practices and maintain a better control over the payment methods that users choose.
Source: Ambito
